It’s not the cheap­est 4K mon­i­tor out there, but Acer’s new S277HK pro­vides ex­cel­lent im­age qual­ity and an at­trac­tive, slim­line de­sign.

The 27-inch dis­play has a very Mac-like de­sign with a smart alu­minium frame and brushed-metal fin­ish. The screen panel mea­sures just 20mm thick and is no­tice­ably more com­pact than the 27-inch screen of the iMac or Ap­ple’s Thun­der­bolt Dis­play. Ap­ple’s dis­plays still have a chunky 25mm bor­der around the edge of the screen, but the de­sign of the S277HK shrinks that down to a barely no­tice­able 6mm, so the Mac desk­top al­most fills the en­tire screen area.

The de­sign isn’t flaw­less, though. The mon­i­tor sits quite low on the desk, and it’s an­noy­ing that you can’t ad­just the height of the screen – although that’s a mis­take that Ap­ple also makes (hence the tele­phone di­rec­tory stuck un­der many an iMac).

The but­tons for the on-screen con­trols are tucked com­pletely out of sight un­der the right-hand edge of the screen, which some­times left us fum­bling to nav­i­gate through the on-screen menus. It’s worth ex­plor­ing the con­trols, though, as they in­clude use­ful op­tions such as pre­set modes for view­ing graph­ics and video, and a blue-light fil­ter de­signed to ease eye-strain if you stare at the mon­i­tor for long pe­ri­ods.

We can’t fault the im­age qual­ity, ei­ther, as the S277HK uses an IPS (in-plane switch­ing) panel that pro­vides ex­cel­lent all-round view­ing an­gles, along with bold colours and strong con­trast that re­ally make the most of the 3840x2160 res­o­lu­tion. Many peo­ple, in­clud­ing de­sign­ers and video ed­i­tors, may also pre­fer the screen’s glare-re­duc­ing matte fin­ish, rather than the glossy, re­flec­tive coat­ing Ap­ple uses.

The S277HK sup­ports HDMI 2.0, which al­lows it to dis­play a 4K im­age with a 60Hz re­fresh rate – although it’s worth re­mem­ber­ing Macs can cur­rently only dis­play 4K video at 30Hz over HDMI. For­tu­nately, the mon­i­tor also in­cludes two Dis­play­Port 1.2 in­ter­faces – one each for full-size Dis­play­Port and Ap­ple’s Mini Dis­play­Port/Thun­der­bolt con­nec­tion – which will al­low the lat­est Mac Pro and Mac­Book Pro mod­els to dis­play 4K video at 60Hz (older mod­els don’t sup­port Dis­play­Port 1.2). The built-in speak­ers

The panel is just 20mm thick and is no­tice­ably more com­pact than the 27-inch iMac or Thun­der­bolt Dis­play

work quite well too, pro­duc­ing re­spectable sound qual­ity and vol­ume, although they can’t quite match the fuller bass sound that Ap­ple man­ages to coax from the iMac’s com­pact speak­ers.

There’s a DVI port, but it’s a shame there isn’t a sec­ond HDMI so you could plug in a games con­sole or a set-top box as well. We were also dis­ap­pointed to dis­cover the S277HK doesn’t sport any USB ports, as many of its 4K ri­vals in­clude them.

The limited con­nec­tiv­ity and the lack of height ad­just­ment are mi­nor flaws in an oth­er­wise at­trac­tive 4K dis­play. How­ever, the S277HK gets it right where it counts most, pro­vid­ing ex­cel­lent 4K im­age qual­ity and at­trac­tive de­sign at a com­pet­i­tive price. Cliff Joseph

The slen­der de­sign of the S277HK stretches your Mac desk­top right across the en­tire front of the mon­i­tor.